Monday, August 3, 2009

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

This was the title of one of my son’s favorite books when he was a child. Certainly, David and I worked hard to instill in our child a love of travel at an early age. What I didn’t realize was that my other “children,” my books would also travel. That they would take on lives of their own, just as my son has.

For example, many years ago I received an email from a woman in South Africa. She wanted to use Scrapbook Storytelling in her rape counseling. She felt that if women could reframe their stories, they could overcome their sense of shame and see themselves as they truly were—courageous survivors.

Recently, while I was in Texas, I met a sociology teacher who uses Paper, Scissors, Death in her lecture on death any dying. Specifically, she references the quotation from Sharon Shinn—something about how we expect death to be ennobling, but it’s not.

Then last week, I received an email from Lois Foster Hirt. Lois writes a fun dental column which includes any mention of a dentist, dentil hygienist or good lines featuring dental tidbits. Once she finds such a mention in a book, she contacts the author and asks why they mentioned dentistry. The interview appear in her blog: http://www.ladhsociety.org/ (Go to "Hygienists in Print") The books she uses as sources go the the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland. Recently, she added both Paper, Scissors, Death and Cut, Crop & Die.

I guess my books and my son have something in common: they were born to go places!

You know, ladies, Betty is right. Just like kids, books have a life of their own. And Terri, I can't take credit for my books' travel experiences...I think, in part, it's a function of how long they've been in the marketplace. Scrapbook Storytelling was released in 1998. Camille, I think out-of-print books probably have their own lifecycle.